FE editor Sandipan Deb quits to head RPG magazine division

BY OUR MEDIA EDITOR

7 January, 2008:

Financial Express editor Sandipan Deb is moving on. Business Standard and Mint newspapers reported on Tuesday that Sandipan has put in his papers at the Express group. A new editor for The Financial Express has not been named yet. Express has not confirmed that he has resigned either.

Though Sandipan refused to name his destination to Mint, merely saying that there is something in the pipeline, Business Standard reported that he is set to launch the magazine division of RPG Enterprises, a diversified business group which has interests in plantations, tyres, and media, now venturing into print business.

Sandipan Deb had joined the Express group from Outlook Money, (formerly Intelligent Investor) where he was managing editor. Sandipan Deb was expected to launch the magazine division of the Indian Express group, which has not seen the light of the day so far. Even as the Indian Express magazine division was dragging along, Mythili Bhusnurmath, the then chief editor of Financial Express stepped down, and Sanndipan was asked to step in. Shekhar Gupta, chief executive officer of Express group and chief editor of Indian Express had then said: "Mythili wanted to reduce her work responsibilities so that she could focus more on writing. That's why Sandipan was brought in her place." Later, Mythili Bhusnurmath returned to The Economic Times where she came from.

Though Shekhar Gupta has spoken several times about the expected launch of the Indian Express magazine division, it never happened. The company's plans to go for an IPO has not materialised either. In a letter to senior Express staffers in July, Shekhar Gupta had lamented that "In a year when the media industry has grown by nearly 25%, our revenues have declined by 3%."

Talent, however, does not wait for corporate revivals to express itself. It so happened that RPG Group decided to venture into the print media business, with plans to launch a clutch of English magazines and Sandipan was spotted for the job. RPG also has plans to bring foreign magazine titles to India. For Sandipan, who has not been in the magazine world since his Outlook Money days, it will be a major challenge to roll out the magazines from scratch, into a market dominated by worthy rivals as India Today and Outlook.